Google is planning to pay independent security researchers — no strings attached — to help find security vulnerabilities in its products.

Google's has had a "Security Rewards Program," which financially rewards security researchers who discover Google vulnerabilities, since 2010. This new program differs because the researchers are given the money before they even begin working, and there's no penalty for not finding anything.

As a bonus to the grant, researchers are still eligible for regular financial rewards if they do happen to disclose or fix a zero-day bug. The program is intended for Google's "top performing, frequent vulnerability researchers as well as invited experts," so this isn't aimed at amateur hackers. Google's treating the program as an experiment and is placing trust in the researchers based on their track records.

It's discouraging for top-notch researchers to get involved with the already-existing Security Rewards Program because — if they find nothing — there is no payout for their time. The grant system, called Vulnerability Research Grants, is meant to offer a better incentive to get involved with Google research, according to a blog post.

The awards range from $500 to $3,133.70. The grants cover different areas of research, such as newly launched products, for example. Google has instructions on its website for people interested in applying for funding. Google does not know how much money will ultimately be put into the project.

Google has given $4 million in rewards to researchers since the program started in 2010. In 2014 alone, Google doled out $1.5 million in rewards for bug disclosures.

As Google amped up security research over time, the company found it more difficult to discover security bugs. That could be because Google's security is getting better — or its not looking in the right places. This new project, in a sense, is Google's way of crowdsourcing for security help.

The company also announced that all of its apps available on Google Play and the App Store now fall under the scope of the rewards program.

Google touts online security as one of its major priorities, and not just internally. The tech giant has a dedicated initiative called Project Zero that exposes security problems in non-Google products, then notifies companies that they exist.

Project Zero has disclosed security flaws for big-name companies, such as Microsoft and Apple. Specifically, Microsoft has expressed public dissatisfaction with Project Zero, claiming that it sometimes seems as if it's more about "gotcha" publicity than actual security concerns.

Mashable
is a global, multi-platform media and entertainment company. Powered by its own proprietary technology, Mashable is the go-to source for tech, digital culture and entertainment content for its dedicated and influential audience around the globe.